Billen stays – fa

MBABANE – Sihlangu’s Belgian coach Valere Billen’s job is safe for now.It has been gathered that the FA Executive had a meeting on Thursday afternoon whereby this was a topical issue. Sources who attended the meeting have said the coach’s issue was discussed at length and in the end the Executive opted not to sack him.

“We didn’t fire Billen and by the look of things he just may not be going anywhere because it could take us backwards to hire a new coach,” said a source.It was established that the decision of the FA Executive not to pull the trigger on Billen was reached, it was also agreed that such decision cannot be taken without considering the report of the FA Technical Committee.

“The Technical Committee will also hand in its reports that will give us further direction in the matter,” added the source.Meanwhile, FA CEO Frederick Mngometu-lu was diplomatic when asked about the matter.“That’s an issue we didn’t conclude instead we will know the directive once we have seen the FA Technical Committee’s reports,” he said.

He said the Technical Committee would be meeting next week ahead of another FA Executive meeting due on Thursday in which all unresolved issues including the 16-team league proposal may be finalised. Billen was given a year’s contract by the FA but in his tenure, he failed to win any official game even though the team showed some improvement in its game but found it had to score goals.